The Phone-y Promotions: Mobile Marketing Issues and Features

Cellular phones, also known as mobile phones, have changed the way of life of people all over the world. People have used mobile phones for communication purposes, primarily calls and text messages. When the mobile phones have been modified with Internet capabilities in the 21st century, they have new features including global positioning system (GPS), audio playing, and camera capabilities. The commercial release of the BlackBerry smartphone by Research in Motion in 2002 has changed the way people treat mobile phones as important gadgets that have are part of their everyday lives.Advertising cell phone has been done before the phones have Internet capabilities. The SMS text messaging service is the first advertising method used on cell phones, where SMS stands for “short messaging service”. Advertising SMS has been done by media companies to endorse promotions, products, and services. However, the commercial usage of smartphones and 3G (3rd generation) phones have revolutionized the mobile marketing trends, wherein mobile marketing software and mobile video advertising have dominated the mobile advertising market. In order for you to understand the features of mobile advertising, they will be discussed by their functions.SMS text messaging service sends messages through the commonly used communication protocols. This mobile phone data application has been used by 2.4 billion active users, making it the mostly used communication feature worldwide. Email messaging from phones is also a form of SMS because it applies that standard mail protocols like Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Advertisers use SMS to encourage phone users to participate in promotions, and endorse products, services, and job openings.Mobile marketing software consists of advertising programs that are created by software developers to be sent to phones. Like mobile phone applications, the advertising programs are created using software development tools like Microsoft Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, iPhone, and Java development tools. The marketing programs are deployed in mobile phones through mobile games, and through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Mobile video advertising has been used by advertisers since the introduction of 3G phones, which have video playing capabilities. The promotional videos are similar to television commercials and online promotional videos. Mobile advertising company iVideopia is the first one to use mobile videos for promotional purposes in all communication devices. Mobile advertising has been achieving progress since the 1990s, but its survival and success has not been fulfilled without controversy. There are several problems that mobile phone customers and users have experienced whenever they see advertisements.Privacy has been the most common concern of mobile phone users, especially when their phones have wireless network connection capabilities. Like any gadgets that have Internet connection, mobile phones are vulnerable to hacking, which has caused worries on users because their forms of sensitive information like social security numbers and account numbers will be leaked to cybercriminals in order to steal money online. Another reason why people are concerned about their privacy on phones is they find mobile advertisements as forms of distraction, especially when the products and services endorsed are unnecessary to the customer. However, companies solve the problem of constant advertising by telling users to type a given code and send the message to the number of the advertiser.  Laws concerning marketing through communication devices are also a major issue. The current telecommunication management laws in the United States and the European Union are outdated, which sparks concerns over the spread of mobile ads as if they were spams, or bulk messages that are sent randomly. New legislation is needed for mobile advertising to encourage competition and investments, and mitigate costs and barriers to conducting business. More importantly, the new laws must also include privacy policies on mobile devices to protect the users.Mobile advertising can be a form of guidance or distraction, an ally or an enemy, depending on how the companies behave while endorsing. The current mobile marketing trends not only expand the mobile advertising market worldwide, but also provide new jobs for people, which are vital to economic growth. Whether useful or harmful, mobile advertising is here to stay because it is the advertising style of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

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